8 



STRAWBERRIES. 



and keeping all the runners cut off. Managed on this plan the 

 plants become very large, have many crowns, look neat and pretty, 

 and produce a good amount of extra large fruit. The objection to 

 it is that it takes three or four times as many plants to set out the 

 land as are needed where the matted-row system is followed, and 

 the crop is not so large. For these reasons this system is not fol- 

 lowed by commercial growers. 



Matted-Row System. — All large growers pursue very nearly 

 the following plan : After the land is pi-epared in the spring it i» 

 marked out with a corn-marker, four feet one way and two feet th^ 

 other, -and the plants are set at the intersections. The horse culti- 

 vator is run both ways until the plants commence to make runner.'i 

 rapidly (about the middle of July), when it is run only in the four- 

 foot intervals. The runners are then pushed together forming a 

 bed or matted row, which by autumn wiU be eighteen inches wide. 

 The ground between the rows should be worked as often as once iu 

 ten days throughout the growing season up to the first of Septem- 

 ber, after which cultivation should cease for the year. ^ Keep the 

 soil loose and be sure the bed is free from w^eeds on the approach of 

 winter. For some varieties two feet apart in the row may leave 

 larger gaps than the runners can fill, but almost any of our com- 

 mercial kinds will easily inll up even larger vacancies. Such varie- 

 ties as the Crescent will easily fill up intervals of three feet in rich 

 sou. The runners should stand about six inches apart in the bed 

 by the first of September. 



Trimming and Setting the Plants. — The plants wh^n dug 

 should have all the dead leaves, pieces of runners and blossoms 

 trimmed off, and if there is a considerable growth of leaves they 

 too should be cut off. All flowers that appear the first year 

 should be taken oif. If the roots are large they are not readily 

 planted, and it is customary to shorten them to about three inches. 

 The way growth starts from these pruned roots is shown in Pig. 1. 

 If a great mop of roots is planted in 

 a bunch a part of them is very apt to 

 rot. Perhaps as good a way as any 

 to set the plants is with a spade. 

 This requires two persons, generally 

 a man and a boy, to do the work rap- 

 idly. After the land is marked out 

 the man places the spade with the 

 back side away from him, presses it 

 about six inches into the moist earth, 

 moves it from him and lifts it out. 

 The boy takes up a plant, separates 

 the roots, and puts them in the hole. 

 The man puts the spade in the 

 ground about four inches nearer him 

 than he had it before and presses 

 the soil against the plant. The boy Fig. 1. Orowth of pruned roots. 



